Cosmic Queries: Science Fiction – The Sequel

Image still from “The Matrix”. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

You Can Also Listen On

About This Episode

You asked so many sci-fi questions we couldn’t fit them into one episode, so Neil deGrasse Tyson and Eugene Mirman are back to answer a few more. Find out if Aliens can have acid for blood, humans can gain telekinetic powers through cybernetic implants or robots can be programmed to follow Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics. You’ll learn about making radios out of coconuts (Gilligan’s Island), alcohol as a fuel source (Futurama), the physics limitations to Iron Man’s power sources and whether Superman should be able to gain strength from our yellow Sun, but grow weaker under the influence of Krypton’s red one. Explore the science in movies like The Abyss, Deep Impact, Prometheus, WALL-E, Dune, and Disney’s The Black Hole. Plus Neil discusses the idea that the universe is a holographic projection, describes his favorite sci-fi (including Contact and The Matrix) and geeks out over whether Superman could beat Captain James T. Kirk and the Starship Enterprise (from Star Trek: The Original Series) in a fight.